Hangs on “press any key to boot from cd”

[outlander83]

ok this is what happened

1. bought PC with vista on it, hated it.
2. went to killdisk.com to get rid of vista.
3. erased entire hard drive with bootable kill disk.
4. partitioned drive with easeus bootable disk. (C:ntfs-70gb, D:fat32-5gb, E:ntfs-500+gb)
5. tried to install xp but got the stop 0x0000007b error screen.
6. tried going back to vista which seemed to install fine but after first restart it hangs on the “press any key to boot from cd” screen (unless you press a key and then it just installs the first step of vista again.)
7. tried installing ubuntu and it works. It can see the partitions but says unable to mount location (internal error: no mount object for mounted volume).
8. download the ultimate boot disk and ran a few hard disk checks, all came back fine. But in computer specs the hard drive is “unrecognized” while everything else shows type, size, manufacturer etc.
9. on vista install disk went to repair screen, it finds the installation, press system repair which tells me there is no problem.
10. run windows memory diagnostic tool which again hangs on the “press any key to boot from cd” screen (unless you press a key and then it just installs the first step of vista again.).
11. pretty much out of ideas at this point.
12. through google I though it might be the master boot record, without knowing what that really is I went about repairing it.
13. found a lot about FDISK /mbr and FIXMBR but not a clue what to do with it (or even if it would work.)
14. try the FDISK/mbr on the command prompt on the vista recovery options but it just says not recognized as an internal or external command etc.
15. then I give up and pray the gods of the forums can help me.

Computer specs.
Medion akoya 3300
Amd 2.8ghz dual processor
4 gb ram
Western digital hard drive (600gb)

 

[EXCellR8]

Is this a SATA or EIDE hard disk?

At what point during the XP installation process did you receive that STOP error?

 

[outlander83]

its sata mate and just after xp says starting to install (still on the mostly blue, text on the bottom screen)

 

[EXCellR8]

So, when you get to the part in the XP setup procedure when you can modify the partitions, you might want to try deleting the partition you wish to install XP on and formatting it again using NTFS. Once formatted, try installing XP again to that partition.

You can also download a copy of Western Digital's drive diagnostic tools from their site; they also have a program that can format and create partitions.

 

[outlander83]

never gets as far as that mate, just as says starting windows instalation. but i will def try the western digital diognostic.

 

[outlander83]

ok i got the wester digital bootable disk for the WD Caviar Green hard drive from their site. put it in and it tells me it cant find any drivers? how do i install drivers without an operating system?

 

[outlander83]

update

i found 11 drivers on the medion site. how ever i tried loading them through the vista repair center but when i went to the load drivers it would not see them. they come as .exe but vista was looking for "system information". not sure what to do with these drivers now? any ideas guys?

 

[mailpup]

5. tried to install xp but got the stop 0x0000007b error screen.

it seems likely your problem here is the lack of proper SATA/RAID controller drivers. You need to press F6 at the prompt in the beginning of the Windows Setup process to install SATA drivers so Windows will continue its installation. The blue screen error message you get is because there are no SATA drivers present or something is wrong with them. However, for this F6 process to work, you will need a floppy drive. If you don't have a floppy drive, you can make a slipstream CD which combines the Windows CD with the SATA controller drivers.

The SATA drivers should come from the motherboard maker's site. If the PC came with Vista on it, there might not be any XP compatible SATA drivers available for that motherboard. If so, you are stuck with Vista.

When the Vista installation hangs at “press any key to boot from cd," don't press anything and wait for awhile. How long have you waited for anything to happen at this point?

 

[outlander83]

it seems likely your problem here is the lack of proper SATA/RAID controller drivers. You need to press F6 at the prompt in the beginning of the Windows Setup process to install SATA drivers so Windows will continue its installation. The blue screen error message you get is because there are no SATA drivers present or something is wrong with them. However, for this F6 process to work, you will need a floppy drive. If you don't have a floppy drive, you can make a slipstream CD which combines the Windows CD with the SATA controller drivers.

The SATA drivers should come from the motherboard maker's site. If the PC came with Vista on it, there might not be any XP compatible SATA drivers available for that motherboard. If so, you are stuck with Vista.

When the Vista installation hangs at “press any key to boot from cd," don't press anything and wait for awhile. How long have you waited for anything to happen at this point?

truthfully mate iv only waited about ten minutes and at this point id take bloody vista, its better then nothin. but if i wanted to make a slipstream CD how would i go about doing that as i dont have a floppy drive?

 

[mailpup]

Do you have the XP compatible SATA controller drivers for your motherboard? If not, you can't make the CD. If so, you should google for the procedure. It's a bit of a complex procedure but several sites explain how.

If you do have the XP SATA drivers, you might consider buying a floppy drive (and cable) to simplify things. It doesn't cost much. Possibly you could borrow one from some other PC.